Hey, SPAM is inevidable on unmoderated lists. People stray off topic. Like
shit, it happens.

True, but it would decrease the amount of spam.

There are also those that do not want to take part in the discussion of
fanfics, or read other people's c&c.  Instead, they prefer to send their
c&c directly to the author.

This has already been taken care of by a current anti-SPAM device: the
reply-to field is to the original sender, not the list.

Again, true.  But there are people who do fwd c&c to the list.  Nothing
wrong with this; it *is* part of what the list is all about, after all.
If there was a discussion list, those who were not subscribed to it
would not get any of the fwd'ed c&c.

The amount of Spam might increase, but that shouldn't bother anyone on the
spam mailing list.  That's what they want, after all.

But there would be no spam on the spam list. After all, spam is off-topic
conversation, which would be perfectly in place on the spamFFML. :)

I knew someone was going to say that.  That's okay, I play the straight
man best. :)

Heh. There's a bit of VERY effective filtering software that everyone has
already preinstalled: YOUR BRAIN!!! When you check your mail, first go
through the whole list of posts and eliminate those that you don't want. I
do this; it cuts down on unwanted spam enormously.

Relatively easy, but time consuming.  Setting up a filter is a one time
proposition that save a *hell* of a lot of time in the long run.

Manual filtering of the discussin list would still have to be done,
of course.  Just 'cause you are only interested in non-Ranma fic's 
does not mean that you would be interested in *all* non-ranma fic's.
So even if the filter was set to block discussin of fic's fwd'ed from
the Ranma mailing list, the user would still have to delte the ones
that he was not interested in.

You have to actually think (HORRORS!) and spend some effort (GASP!), but
you have the advantage that the filter constantly updates itself, it's made
by unskilled labor, and it comes free with each life. Besides, user-end
filters are the USER's responsibility not the Admin's. WW can't do it for
us; we have to.

Well, yeah.  I did say that the user would have to set up the filter.
Even if they didn't (or couldn't) set up the filter, the threads
would be clearly marked as to what fic list they were from.

I'm not completly sold on the idea myself, but I think this idea might
well benifit the list.  What would be the drawbacks?

Well, one would be that the setting up of all this would not be without a
great deal with effort. After all, WW can't even update that damned
archive. ;)

As I said in the first paragraph, the idea would be worth thinking about
if it could be done w/o a lot of effort.  I don't know a thing about
setting up mailing lists, so I can't judge this one.

The second problem is that the lines between C&Cing, discussion and SPAM
are very thin. One usually doesn't realize that he's spamming until he
looks back and says, "Gee, that was a spam thread, wasn't it?"

Well, c&c and discussion would go to the same list, so no problem there.
And once a thread was recognized as spam, it could be fwd to spam@fanfic.com.
Where it would no longer be spam. ;)

The really alarming thing in my view is that this sounds a lot like
MODERATION. << O.O >> One of the reasons why this list was set up in the
first place was to give an off-RAAC forum to hack out fics before being
released to that newsgroup, if I'm not mistaken.

It's self imposed moderation.  And only loosly, at that.

I compared Gary's suggestion to the current newsgroups under
rec.arts.anime.*. It sent shivers up my spine. Go and see for yourself.
Kinda scary, isn't it? If the FFML goes this way, I'm unsubbing altogether.
It'll just be a Usenet clone.

The r.a.a. hierachy is a poor example to use.  It was a poorly 
implemented split.  

I really fail to see how a split as described would change the list
as a whole.  If a person was subscribe to all five lists, it would
be just like being subscribed to the present list.  People would
have to be a little more careful that they are responding to the
right list, but that just means they would have to use that cheap
operating system you were touting earlier. ;)
 
So here is a question.  If a person was subscribed to all five
lists, how would the messages he see change?  They would still
get the 'fics, the discussion, and the spam.

The FFML doesn't need any fixing. It WE that needs the overhaul!

As I said, I'm not sold on the idea myself.  Heck, I would be one
of the people subscribed to all five lists anyway.  It's just that
I can see how it would help people with lives, and wouldn't hurt me.

-- 
Erik Schweitzer                   | Prez of the Houghton Anime Review Org
Michigan Technological University *  haro's homepage can be found at;
elschwei@mtu.edu                  | http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~pekrogel/HARO.html
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